Personal-Development

Our Self Image Is A Ghost

Writing by bwerner on Saturday, 26 of January , 2008 at 10:25 am

by Nirmala

Ghosts are usaully thought of as something that exists after we die. We imagine a piece of us that haunts all of the places we lived when we were alive. But what if there is another kind of ghosts that is around even while you are alive? What if your self-image is actually a kind of ghost or lie?

As we usually think of them, ghosts are insubstantial forms that come and go. They are not quite solid or real, and most people can’t see them. And yet how substantial or real are our images of ourselves-our ideas about who we are? If you have an image of yourself as an attractive person one day and as an unattractive person the next day, how real was either image? And can other people see your self image? What does it mean if you have a self image of being unattractive and someone acts attracted to you anyway? Maybe they can’t see your self image. Maybe your self image is a kind of ghost.

We may not be willing to learn that our idea of ourselves is not real because we are used to thinking these ghost like images are who we really are. We end up wondering, Who could I be if what the image I have of myself is not real? What else exists here besides these ghostly self images I take to be myself?

There is of course a strong sense that we do actually exist, and that we are real. But where does this sense of existence and reality come from? Does it come from these ideas about oursleves, or does the sense really existing come from deeper within our being? It can be difficult to distinguish since the image and the realness can both be here at the same time, and our ego’s idea of ourselves can simulate that deeper sense of realness we all naturally have.

One way to know what is real and what is not is to ask how substantial are your ideas of yourself. A true measure of how real something is, is how long it lasts. If something last longer, it is more real. And how long do your ideas about yourself last? They faed in and out (like a ghost in a ghost story) and usually don’t last long at all. A thought can be over so quickly that a moment later we can’t remember what we were just thinking.

A new image or thought about ourselves is constantly arising to replace the last thought or image. And sometimes we aren’t thinking about ourselves at all. So all our self-images images and identifications are not very real. They are like ghosts in our minds.

How about the pure sense that you are real right now? Does that sense come and go? Do you ever really have the opposite sense that you don’t exist or never existed? This sense that you do exist is more true than any of your ideas about yourself because it is always here. You always exist, but the thoughts in your mind about yourself are like ghosts. What you are has never been contained in your self-images. Even when your ideas of yourself fade away, like images in a movie, what you really are is always still here .

It is the real you that matters. You can become more curious about this real you than you are about the false ghosts of identity. What is the real you made of? What is it like? What does it want? What can it do? These are rich and meaningful questions to explore, but remember that the real answers are not to be found in your ideas about yourself. The truest answers can be found in the simple sense that you exist.

Internationally recognised http://www.endless-satsang.com spiritual teacher, Nirmala has been offering satsang and one-to-one spiritual mentoring for ten years. He offers www.endless-satsang.com/Ebooks.htm free spiritual books and many more ways to experience his teaching on endless-satsang.com.

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Category: Personal Development

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